This article, prepared by the University of Antwerp (UA) and the National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC), describes the development of an electrochemical screening strategy for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the regular psychoactive compound in ecstasy (XTC) pills. The research team has investigated the specific electrochemical profile of MDMA and its electro-oxidation mechanisms at disposable graphite screen-printed electrodes. The proposed electrochemical screening strategy has been demonstrated for the rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of MDMA, resolving most of the false positives and negatives given by the traditional Marquis color tests, thus exhibiting remarkable promises for the on-site screening of MDMA.
This article has been published in ChemElectroChem.